94 comments:

From what I understand, the Superior Court is in a hiring freeze, which means that they are not currently authorized to hire new clerks for next year. However, many of the clerks from last year (I believe the number is 40) have stayed on for an additional year. I do know that they rescinded many (if not all) of the offers they had made last year.

"The judiciary had 105 full-time clerks in June; now as a result of budget cuts, it will have about 75 full-time clerks and about a dozen part-time ones (most of them volunteers). . . . Almost all of the full-time clerks . . . have been retained for a second or third year." - Boston Globe, 9/1/09

Confirming: The Superior Court is not hiring clerks now, or for the foreseeable future. It does have a "volunteer intern" program if you're desperate to avoid a gap on your resume. The volunteer intern thing doesn't include deferred biglaw associates.

I already interviewed with Mockler. He said that their applicant pool has been steadily improving in recent years and that this was the strongest pool to date. I think that it is probably impossible to answer questions about percentages for this year because they are still accepting applications.

I think that's correct--I expect a more talented crop of Appeals Court clerks next term. This will probably be the most competitive year ever for clerkships at the Appeals Court. Count on applicants who missed out with federal clerkships to consider this one, which I think is different than the past.

When Frank Mockler described the process, he did not talk about a certain number of "rounds" of interviews. It seemed like a more fluid process where he looked through the application materials and invited people to come in and he read through them.

Mockler said in his interview with me that he plans on reading all of the apps that come in, even the ones that come in on the last day of September. He wants the best clerks possible and isn't ruling out the possibility that the most qualified people submitted on the last day.

I posted the October 15, 2009 6:57 PM message. Sorry for the confusion. This was just something that Frank Mockler wrote to me in an email about a separate matter - not an email telling me that I made it to the second round. Was just trying to respond to questions about timeline.

I interviewed yesterday with Frank. I was pretty much among the final candidates. These are complete screening interviews, everyone. If you met with Frank, it is likely that you will be passed along to the Justices. From there, it is hand-selection for interviews. Good luck.

No, I don't think people received an e-mail to let them know that they were in the second round. I think the more senior judges have at least chosen who they want to interview, but the more junior judges have not.